Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent -- March 30, 2011
Matthew 5:17 – 19
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Spiritual development, of necessity, begins with laws, rules and obligations. None of us can handle the full weight of Truth from the beginning. It is too much, too heavy, too TRUE! We have to be moved along gently, piece by piece, step by step, into the really large realities of life.
Of course, we almost never see that while we’re in the midst of the movement. We tend to think, at whatever stage of the journey we find ourselves, that we are ready for the whole enchilada . . . or, that we already have the whole enchilada. It’s just another of the many ways we live in illusion and self-referenced falsity.
We don’t know everything there is to know and we haven’t experienced everything there is to experience.
I say to folks quite often, “We can’t know what we don’t know,” though I find that most people find it hard to confess that there are things they don’t yet know. But I always follow up that statement with this line: “But we can know that we don’t know.” This is the confession that I am still in progress, not yet complete. There are things I don’t know and haven’t experienced. They may or may not be in my future, but at this moment, I am not yet who I will be.
In truth, this is simply a confession of our humanity. We are human, not God. We are always in process. We begin with rules and regulations, what Jesus and Paul called “the Law” and then incrementally, organically, step-by-step move into a life of freedom that is characterized by an unbreakable connection with the One who is the Center of it all.
Don’t be too quick to dismiss “the Law and the Prophets.”
But if you’ve gone a lifetime and never moved beyond them, you still have some distance to travel.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Spiritual development, of necessity, begins with laws, rules and obligations. None of us can handle the full weight of Truth from the beginning. It is too much, too heavy, too TRUE! We have to be moved along gently, piece by piece, step by step, into the really large realities of life.
Of course, we almost never see that while we’re in the midst of the movement. We tend to think, at whatever stage of the journey we find ourselves, that we are ready for the whole enchilada . . . or, that we already have the whole enchilada. It’s just another of the many ways we live in illusion and self-referenced falsity.
We don’t know everything there is to know and we haven’t experienced everything there is to experience.
I say to folks quite often, “We can’t know what we don’t know,” though I find that most people find it hard to confess that there are things they don’t yet know. But I always follow up that statement with this line: “But we can know that we don’t know.” This is the confession that I am still in progress, not yet complete. There are things I don’t know and haven’t experienced. They may or may not be in my future, but at this moment, I am not yet who I will be.
In truth, this is simply a confession of our humanity. We are human, not God. We are always in process. We begin with rules and regulations, what Jesus and Paul called “the Law” and then incrementally, organically, step-by-step move into a life of freedom that is characterized by an unbreakable connection with the One who is the Center of it all.
Don’t be too quick to dismiss “the Law and the Prophets.”
But if you’ve gone a lifetime and never moved beyond them, you still have some distance to travel.
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